Neo-liberal Green Grabbing and Green Washing in Minas Gerais, Brazil
The Case of Ibitipoca
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.40.094Keywords:
neo-liberal conservation policy, green grabbing, green washing, Minas Gerais, BrazilAbstract
The neo-liberal turn of Brazilian conservation policy after 1990 is questioned using critical concepts from political ecology and environmental history perspectives: carbon colonialism, green grabbing, urban exploitation of the rural in the form of bio-centric nature enclosures and green washing unsustainable activities through green talk and environmental compensation. These issues are illustrated in an example of a large private nature reserve in Minas Gerais, perhaps the most environmentally blighted of Brazilian states after centuries of mining activities. 21st Century global political ecology methods are used to locally, regionally, nationally and globally contextualize the case study researched in fieldwork undertaken in 2023 in the locality of Ibitipoca, situated in a High Mountain enclave located within the Atlantic Forest biome of the state. Decades of prior research in different Brazilian biomes and regions are mobilized to demonstrate how the large private nature reserve displays all the hallmarks of green grabbing, green washing and elitist eco-tourism. The case also presents a Brazilian example of what Latour (2018) called the elitist bunker/gated community mentality involving Local-minus faux traditionalism in which elites opt out of Global-plus modernization and limit the scope and scale of reparations for environmental destruction perpetrated elsewhere by creating specific green havens for their own personal use.
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